Kiss From the King

I had a bit of an epiphany in the shower again last night. I posted this on face book as well as my friends on the Wisconsin email loop. I found that the face book version has a LOT to spelling errors in it . . .it was late and I was trying to get it all down before I forgot it. This version is cleaned up quite a bit.

Kiss from the King . . .

In the past 10 years of my life, I have found myself to be at odds with family and friends due to the fact that I've walked away from traditional Christianity. The biggest struggle I've encountered is "not" that I'm left empty or alone as a result. But that I can't seem to find a way to get others to see that there is more . . .SOOO much more to the Father's love than what church, the mainline churches . . .religion in general have projected all these generations.

My quest is not to enforce what I see on anyone, but to plant a seed of transformational life in others and leave them alone to have that seed birth God's true nature in them at their own level of understanding. Then it just occurred to me, two things actually, not sure if I have the time to hit them both. But the first and foremost one is understanding the magnitude of what God's love truly is.

When I was a kid, the only love I knew was the love my parents had for me. Then as I grew into my early teens, I was head over heels for a girl that didn't have the same feelings toward me . . .and at that age, I'm sure they'd call it puppy love and what have you, but to a tween-aged kid, that moment was the world of love to him. Then in my early twenties, I gave my love to another person which the door abruptly slammed hard . . .broken-hearted, I felt my world had come to an end . . .I felt love no longer would ever be the same . . .it "could" have had I have let it. But then, in my late twenties, I found my best friend, fell in love, married in love and we've chosen to remain in love ever since . . .not that I made that an easy choice for her, but God gave her a hefty dose of love that allowed us to still be each other's lover for the past 25 years. And in that, I experienced an entirely different level of love by having two girls who are now in their early twenties themselves, finding out their own experiences of love, and two 8 year old boys who only know what it's like to be loved by their parents still.

That's a lot of levels of love . . .and I know for a fact that it's not just "my" experience, but it's every human being's experience. We've all experienced so many different levels of love. Notice not once in all of that had I mentioned God's love. I'll make up for that now. Love is the reason why I walked away from religion. I've fallen in love with the Father . . .not because I searched him out, but because he chose me . . .he's chosen every one of us . . .that's how we came to be. The moment we were conceived in our mother's womb, we were "assigned" by God to be in that specific parent at that specific moment in time. yes there's been many who've felt cheated and abused, but that's not because of God, that's because love has been perverted, abused, misused, abandoned, tromped down and totally disregarded.

But, NEVER defeated. All through our lives, love always finds a way to show up and heal what's hurting. Now . . .I've said ALLLLL of that to say this. God is love. He's not just "love", he's LOVE. Man will never fathom just what that means unless God decides to reveal it directly to you. But for me, if you take all those different levels of love like I mentioned as examples in my own life, and you ball them all together in to ONE experience of love . . .from the love a child receives to the love a parent gives and everything in between. (Let's not leave out grandparents in that)

All of that, pressed down, shaken together will only give you a glimpse of the Father's love for us. I would do ANYTHING for my wife, and for my kids. If it came down to laying my own life down so they could have theirs, I'd do it. If I knew that tomorrow, if one of them were to get on a plane and it was to crash, and I had ALL control at my fingertips, I would buy the airline and shut it down so they'd have to take a train. Are you following me?

As much as I love my kids and wife, God loves the entire world THAT MUCH MORE. Not only was he willing . . .but he DID give his only son because our relationship with him had broken and he had the wherewithall to fix it. Unless you think it's truly God's will that people go to hell because they reject his love. If your own kids rejected your love, would that stop you from keeping them safe? From wanting to be near them at every opportunity? How much more do you think God loves us?

Love did not give the ultimate sacrifice so we "might" choose his love over hell. He had the means to make it right and he DID IT. Love is just that great. Religion instills the fear of hell, God's love casts out all . . .ALL fear. If we choose him, all the better because that means we can experience that love NOW rather than after we're dead.

think about this . . . Jesus loved us so much that being WITH us wasn't enough. he wanted to be IN us!! That was his motivation to die for us. That was his motivation for his physical body to ascend back to heaven . . .so that he could return without a body in the form of the SPIRIT when he poured himself on all flesh in the upper room. And that's where he's been ever since . . .IN US. Sin is NOT more powerful than love. Our rejection is not more powerful than his love. Regardless as to whether we can accept it or not, love reconciled the broken relationship. I love him more now since leaving the church and all the religion it represented than I ever have in my entire life. How great is the Love of the Father to you?

Can you let him be great enough that the whole world is reconciled? Or is the love of the Father you embrace limited to only those who'd minds made the conscious decision. My God is greater than that, I pray your eyes will be opened to see that as well.

Was looking through past posts and run across this one by Nathan, led to bring it back to the forefront of our minds.

The ground of love produces the tree of compassion that bears the fruit of forgiveness.

When His pattern is recognized in everything, the whole world reveals the finished work of Christ, for we are all created in the image of God, mind, heart and spirit to be manifested through this earthly flesh.

Loved it Nathan, as His word so often does, it touches the heart and brings forth love, it brings forth the Father.

Jugg

I'm glad you did Sweetie, .... God's Love for us will NEVER Fail it just keeps producing and producing after HIS Kind till ALL come to Know Him....

God "IS" Love....and every time we show forth that Love He is made manifest...

I Love you Sweetie..........OOPS!! There He is

As His Word So Often Does, It Touches The Heart And Brings Forth Love.

Hi folks…

This is what I am seeing in relation to Nathan’s post.

1st, let me say that I discovered something about each and every person’s walk. There are two falls. The first fall in the one we address at the cross of course. The second is a fall into religion. I have seen, if you can receive this, that every believer falls into a measure of religion. Sometimes it takes only days to happen, sometimes years. But each person falls and then must come up out of religion in all its various forms.

The exit from this fall is relationship. Relationship to the father and relationship to each other. This is embodied in love, which comes from God. When Jesus came, he did not start a religion. He did not start an organization or a system. He made a relationship with 12 people who then, subsequently, changed the whole world. It all begins in relationship.

This forum is bathed in love and care for one another. I don’t want to violate that, but I must tell you all that it is our destiny to put to death the remaining areas of religion in us and move on to relationship. Nathan’s post is the heartbeat of God right at this moment.

So how do we do that? Well, Nathan I will speak to you directly. I believe I have a measure of standing with you, so I want to make a point. A very strong point. You are standing at the precipice of another quantum jump in your walk with the Lord. Like the time when we spoke about revelations and the new perspective on the word, we are about to leap into an experience with God that will take all those years of revelations and make them our experience in Christ. We learn truth by being involved with the Kingdom. That truth eventually becomes our reality, if we engage it by desire and through faith.

When a person comes out of religion, the Lord offers many helps. Often we receive the right boot of fellowship from an otherwise loving body of believers. That happens because religion will NEVER allow you to grow to a point of casting it out. It must attack while you are still vulnerable and very young.

The wilderness ensues. The dark night of the soul causes our feelings to writhe in anguish until the Lord’s process wrings religion from our very fabric. We must begin to see sin as anything that is not of faith, and thus it is anything that is not patterned after Christ. Then the verse comes to pass: Every one born of God ceases from sin. This is a hard saying. It is our person being conformed to His image.

There comes a point in our journey that revelation is no more able to take us farther into the Kingdom. The water must turn to wine. There is wine of the earth and there is wine in heaven. We must begin to partake of the wine of the spirit, which is a transformation. We trade our water (revelation) for wine. The revelation that sustained you for so long must now be given away unto God as a treasure stored in heaven. It removes your claim to it. The trade leaves you empty so that you can be filled with wine. The manifestation will equal the revelation. I promise.

The Lord wants me to address something else also. Yes, it is true that many people cannot see what you have seen and often they reject you when you present your views and revelations. It hurts doubly bad when those are loved ones close to you. There are some things here.

First, the Lord has given these things to you because you opened your heart to Him. It isn’t necessarily for them, although it is true the Lord wants them to grow up into maturity. All come to maturity, but each in his or her own time and in their own order. If you judge them for not getting it, you are back in religion. You must see the circumstance from His perspective.

Religion is what is keeping you from relationship. We must be delivered from this second fall. We must challenge every thought, taking it captive, even imagining ourselves taking them to the cross and nailing them there. Desire for ministry is not the desire for the Father. All our doings must be placed in the proper place so that they do not compete for the place of relationship in our lives. We must understand that our calling is found in heaven (the spirit) and to lay ahold of that calling, we must go there and get it. To do so, we must first have relationship with the Father.

The spirit is given to lead us to Jesus. Jesus then leads us to the Father. If we follow His order, we will obtain the calling and purpose in Him, and we will fulfill it.

Apologies again for my absence. I've been on a two week vacation with my family this time though ...so I have an excuse.  

Todd, I appreciate and receive this word from you . . .there is a reverberation all through it that resonates with what I've been experiencing. I especially like how you worded the trading of revelation for even a greater relationship . . .even though revelation will continue on as the relationship grows, the emphasis of identity once again has another metamorphosis and I've yet to comprehend what that will turn into, but I see, and agree wholeheartedly that there is always this continuance of living from glory to glory.

Thanks bro for taking the time to share this out.

When you stated that revelation would no longer advance us into the kingdom, it was as if God leaned over my shoulder, pointed at that sentence and said . . ."See? You're not fading away, your just transitioning again . . " It's not that I've been struggling in the revelating, it's that the hunger seems to becoming more refined . . .more . . .precise? I've been learning that spiritual truths were never meant to be blanket pronouncements in the sense that everyone should be on "this" level or see "this" connection.

It all goes back to that "personal" relationship where we realize the kingdom is IN US . . . which means that because we have different personality traits and mannerisms, as the kingdom manifests through us, it will of course then be different from one individual to the next. The message will be similar, but the delivery and details will be very different. The emphasis will still be on Christ as it should be, but how I manifest love, which is Christ, yes? It will still have a completely different appearance than how my brother or sister would manifest love.

I believe this is why we had to be set free from the law. I was in this conversation with a dear friend of mine just this week. Law is the knowledge of sin, but we have been set free from the law and as a result, we are also set free from not just sin itself, and not just the power of sin, but we're set free from the KNOWLEDGE of sin . . .Law is the measuring device used to identify sin. Measure the sin, inflict the law that goes with it.

It always intrigued me when Jesus would tell someone "Go and sin no more". He did that with the woman that they caught in the act of adultery. As far as we know, neither Jesus, or the woman had ever met each other before this moment . . .so it's not like he had been tutoring her on how to become sinless. But yet there it is, go and sin no more.

But now, I think there was an even greater event taking place when he spoke those words to her . . .he was setting her free from the law that was demanding her to be stoned. He was setting her free from the guilt and shame that goes with the sin. And he was setting her free from any further attempts for carnality to bring her back into bondage. He removed the knowledge of sin from her.

That's why 1 John 3, as Todd refers to, is so hard for many to comprehend. When we experience the birthing of true life within us, it causes us to be ascended above the reaches of the measurements of sin.

I have been hovering over this passage in Hebrews somewhat and have had some wonderful things emerge from the depths of understanding as a result. I was trying to keep it all in context when I post the passage but in doing so, I'd have to pretty much post the entire chapter . . .so instead, I'm posting what jumps out at me the most and hopefully this will all connect together for you as well.

Hebrews 10:26 is the destination, but in leading up to it, I pass through this verse first . . .

9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

That word "sanctified" jumps out a bit . . .I am sanctified because he "willed" it to be. not because I made an attempt to adhere to the laws. In fact, that's what was removed so that the second could be established. Instead of trying to follow the law, I'm to embrace him because he's the only one who could fulfill the law. What is the law again? It's the knowledge of sin. Christ overcame knowledge and fulfilled the law so that he can live in us and we can live free from the KNOWLEDGE of sin. So who is sanctified? And what does that actually mean? I love this because it ties right into this verse as well . . .

14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Perfected . . . purified . . . in God's eyes, what Jesus did was, he returned us to our sinless state. we didn't do it. We still use the law to measure how bad off we are. But the truth is, we're not as bad off at all because the law we're using to measure with no longer has any affect. Which leads us into the verse . . .Hebrews 10:26 . . .

26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

I used to use this verse with such force many years ago. It was one of my favorite verses to confuse and conform anyone who'd listen. But it was "I" who was bound by the very thing I was attempting to be free from.

Law is the knowledge of sin. LIFE is the knowledge of truth. When we come into the knowledge of truth, there is no longer a sacrifice for sin . . .because we are no longer bound by law, which measures the sin. That's why Jesus could say "go and sin no more . . ." because what he was really doing was, setting people free from the law that measured the sin in the first place.

The emphasis is no longer about trying not to sin . . .it's about pursuing Christ and embracing his Grace. I hope this is making some sense.

It makes perfect sense to me, to sum it up in a nutshell:

To have Life is to share the Grace we have been given with others,

for Grace IS the righteousness of Christ and a Life of Grace is the righteous Life of Christ, we are becoming like Christ (The image of God)

Our Heart (Christ in us) is the cup that overflows with Grace (His righteousness)

Nathan et. al.,
There were some really interesting points in your last post. I am instantly reminded of the verse in Romans – Christ is an end of the law of righteousness for all who believe. Let me find it…..

Rom 10:2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Now, in this new light that you have shed, this takes on a different meaning. Let us be clear though, in Christ , the matter of our righteousness is complete. I think this is exactly what you wrote. However, there is more to this story.

Matthew 5:18
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Oooooo … A CONTRADICTION!!!! No wait! Just kidding.

I wrestled with this for years until I understood that the Law is a testimony of who He is.. Therefore it is also a testimony of what we will become in Christ. In the first coming of Christ, we are made His righteousness. Some will say by position, others will come at it from a different angle. All have a measure of truth. The righteousness of God does start to manifest in us between Passover and Tabernacles. The completion (when perfection comes) is when we enter into the Tabernacles Feast. The spirit helping, of course, by way of Pentecost.

God sort of finishes a matter before He starts it. That is interesting in itself. Shows many things, of which one thing is that He is sovereign over time. So He made us righteous before we became righteous. If we understand the spirit realm, these legal matters must first be settled in heaven. They are indeed. There is a legal reason why we are righteous, and therefore have been given authority to engage the heavenly realm to further impact the world around us (this is the next revelation, which is more like an experience than a revelation). Thy Kingdom is coming to earth through His saints, who by reason of use have learned to exercise their righteousness in Christ.

So the transition that you are coming into is actually happening to many people now. It is about engaging the Kingdom of God in a experiential manner. There is no point in God feeding us more and more revelation if we are not going to do something with it. What I am finding is that the revelations have a price. We have to step into them so that they become a part of our lives. Then, God can add more revelation to take us further in.

Here is the challenge. Take all those things that were crazy from the past. The nutso charismaniacs and there behaviors. Put that aside and realize that within there was a truth. We need to repent of moving in experience wrongly, and also repent of rejecting certain experiences based on obvious errors of others. God has something for us to move in and its pure. There is a cleansing now we must undergo so that the water of our revelation becomes the wine of the Spirit in the Kingdom of God. Doesn’t that sound exciting?

As I read your reply Todd, I heard something....Not sure of it's fullness as of yet but I've thought about it for a few hours now and decided to post it in faith......

"It's time for a change of Garments"

Heb 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

Well instantly, I have a reaction to that.
 
The wool garment of the priest symbolizes the manifest body in this dimension, but the linen garment must but put on to enter the HOH, or in this case the Kingdom realm. The linen is often seen in the spirit when people meet others from that realm.
 
Also, to enter in, we must have new garments. When the high priest had prepared to go in for months, the Lord still said his garments were filthy rags. The angel was instructed to put on him new ones. Indeed, we come before Him to get clean...

Yes, exactly....I don't know about you but ...the possibilities is rising up in me to see what happens next.... 

I'm thinking that those who have shared in the Fellowship of His Sufferings (Life) and has also shared in the Glory of His Life (to a degree).......

Ain't seen nothing yet.....!!!

The passage of when Jesus came across the man who asked him "what must I do . . ." I'm not sure what it was he was wanting to do . . .to be saved? To enter into the kingdom? I don't remember the rest of his question. But I do remember Jesus first answered him with just a basic "help the lame, give to the poor" answer and the guy responded and said he was already doing that.

Which is interesting in itself in that if the guy was already doing the very thing Jesus said one needed to do, you'd think the guy would have rejoiced in the fact that he was where he was supposed to be. But he pressed in and now Jesus took it to a whole other level by telling him to sell all he owned give the proceeds to the poor and follow him . . . and with that, the guy backed away because he had ACCUMULATED a lot of wealth.

For me, we've had to come to a place within ourselves to be willing to sell all we had accumulated in the wealth of our knowledge ABOUT God, to bring us to a place where we could actually "Follow" him. And that's the crux. So many have invested all their Sundays and midweek nights to learning about God that they can't bring themselves to let go of all of that in order to just follow after God.

So Nathan, you are red hot man..

This place is an alter. To go into the next room, you must now sacrifice.

The Lord is very clearly saying to many in this hour that we need to exit religion and pursue relationship with Him. We need to realize that the relationship we currently have falls way short of the one He wants us to have with him. The cost of this relationship is your religion. That includes all the personal treasure that was laid up in your mind, rather than in heaven. You actually have to trade to the One in heaven to store it there...You have to give it away!

Man I am glad somebody it getting this. They all look at me like a heretic at our bible study.

I get it Todd!

And my friends look at me that way too. Especially when I say, "Father told me..." And they look at me like I must be either crazy or incredibly deceived. I have been out of the church system for so long that I forget that they are not generally accustomed to hearing and learning from Him. (I come from a Baptist background... not sure if it's different with Pentecostals LOL.)

I love this place and glean so much from all of you.

Thanks.  

A bit of advice to stop the crazy looks, rather than say God showed me or God told me .....

I myself will say "What I have come to understand is this" then speak what was shown to you, give an explanation .... in this way you don't get a reaction from them towards you ..... it becomes a reaction inside of them to think about what you have said.

Let them see God the Father in you (and themselves), not something that is outside of themselves. The Father stays hidden but His wisdom is manifested through Christ in you. Let His Spirit in them confirm or deny what you said to be truth.

It has to start from the inside.

My two cents

Yeah, it's difficult because the truth is  . . God "did" actually reveal this to us and we're merely trying to give him the credit for that.  But at the same time, I've seen many people say God told them something and what they follow that up with are things that don't appear to align with his nature at all . . .many religious strings attached.

That's why I also try to present my side of it with a much less aggressive approach by saying "Well, for me . . .. "  I use that one a lot.  But I do it on purpose because I want them to understand this is my experience and they can obviously have their own with different results.  It gives them an option rather than almost dare them to disagree with me that God said it.  It doesn't take away from what I share, it just makes the whole thing a little more palatable for them to receive.

I've been in a face book conversation the last couple days with a person who has become despondent over religious expectations that he's washed his hands from anything religious as far as traditional church goes.  He's yet another example of many people I find myself in discussion over dimensional understanding.

The sentiment I get from so many is when you begin sharing what you see in some of the most common stories in Scripture . . .simply like how Adam and Eve actually represent my soul and spirit . . .or David and Goliath . . .Goliath is actually representing the carnal man, David picked up 5 stones .. .number of grace, which is to say that what transpired on that field that day and what happens when the carnal man in us has the Word of truth penetrate the mind and then the sword of the Spirit removes our head from the body all together .. .people can actually feel a connection fall into place within their hearts, but their so accustom to living according to their minds, they end up throwing up a caution flag at you because  . . .and here's my main point in all of this . . .they don't understand why these things are "hidden" from most people and "revealed" to only a few.

Then connected to that, they don't feel that letting go of what's literally written is such a good idea because most of what they believe, and probably "all" of what they believe derives from what their natural eyes have read, their logic and reason has comprehended and their natural ears have heard someone else preach about.

Part of my conversation with this friend on face book was about the fact that one of the reasons why he balked with the traditional church is because in his eyes, science contradicts what Genesis says about creation.  So many times we plant a seed but then get drawn away from what we just did because we get caught up in discussions pertaining to literal aspects.  

After redirecting this particular conversation back to the emphasis of pursuing the spiritual truths, the guy slowed down a bit on his openness to what was being said and kind of accepted the fact he's ignorant and okay with that for where he is now.  Which really is fine, but what I notice from past experiences is when people conclude with that . . .their hunger for depth dies down and for me, hunger is the most important part of all of this . . .if we're not hungry . . .if we believe all of our vessels in our house are full of oil, the flow will stop as  a result.

But what also just recently appeared to me is one of the reasons, I'm sure there are many, but one of the reasons why not everything God has is just lying there on the surface.  Like everything else about God . . .it's a multidimensional experience.  There are many layers to his nature just as Jesus said in the Father's house are many rooms.  And just like religion, they turned the focus on a "mansion" in heaven rather than realizing that he was talking about rooms of understanding . . .depths of his nature . . .that and the fact that it was also a wedding invitation . . .not to just attend "a" wedding, but it's actually an invitation to his bride to join him in the Father's house.  There's a lot going on in that sample, be it abused, story about the many rooms of the Father's house.

But for us to experience the dimensions, the different layers and levels, requires ENGAGEMENT on our part.  The stuff that lies on the surface doesn't require us to dig or pursue.  The whole world has heard about Adam and Eve . . .but can their inward eyes "see" the significance of the patterns Adam and Eve represent?  It's never been about acquiring knowledge "about" God.  It's merely a turning of my attention toward the true sound of his voice as he reveals his nature through both his voice inside us as well as the written word sent "to" us.  To reject the idea that it's dimensional is a tragedy.

Thanks guys!

Yeah Nathan you hit the nail on the head, how do I tell someone the truth that HE showed me without "taking glory" for it, this is my issue!! Yet what JUGG and you shared seems wise to me because they truly can't get past the "Father told me..." lol. At least if I say, "this is how I have come to see it" they can listen to the rest of the sentence without closing off their minds and hearts to what I am about to say.  

This is a subject that me and Jugg have had discussions on as well...
How to speak to someone....

I believe when it comes to "The Religious Mindset" it don't make a hill of beans "how" you speak, or What you speak, they will not hear but reject no matter how much your words are spoken in the Spirit of Love....

Luk 10:16  He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.

When they reject our words they reject Him, I believe this is mainly done for us so that it exposes the Heart, we are then told to shake off the dust and move on....

He also told us that: Mat 10:26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
Mat 10:27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.

I like the way the Message bible puts it....

Mat 10:26  "Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are.
Mat 10:27  So don't hesitate to go public now.
Mat 10:28  "Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life--body and soul--in his hands.


I say speak what He gives us to speak and the way He wants us to speak it.....And let the chips fall where they may....if it's truly from Him it will be in Love, Light, Life and Authority....

Mar_1:22  And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.

MSG...Mar 1:22  They were surprised at his teaching--so forthright, so confident--not quibbling and quoting like the religion scholars.


Luk 12:11  "When they drag you into their meeting places, or into police courts and before judges, don't worry about defending yourselves--what you'll say or how you'll say it.
Luk 12:12  The right words will be there. The Holy Spirit will give you the right words when the time comes."


Blessings

Holly1 wrote:Thanks guys!

Yeah Nathan you hit the nail on the head, how do I tell someone the truth that HE showed me without "taking glory" for it, this is my issue!! Yet what JUGG and you shared seems wise to me because they truly can't get past the "Father told me..." lol. At least if I say, "this is how I have come to see it" they can listen to the rest of the sentence without closing off their minds and hearts to what I am about to say.  

That's something you shouldn't worry about because it is not your words or Unveiling that contains The Glory.....But His.....

The way I look at it is...if I share something with someone that He has showed me.....Then ONLY His Glory should be Revealed to them...

Just my two cents worth.....

I was one of the most religious people out there . . .embraced all of it without batting an eye because I was convinced God was who I was taught that he was. Defended my stance to any who would dare to differ to the point of condemnation and chasing them off. All in the name of God and I would even pat myself on the back for "setting them straight" whether they liked it or not.

Paul was so religious that he imprisoned people and had others put to death . . .so yeah, religion is a powerful force. But . . . even in all of that, if a SEED of love is planted in all that hardness, it's like a tree that found a crack in the cement . . . it'll find a way to flourish. And over time, it'll actually cause the cement to break up.

Religion is full of cracks . . because it's erected by people. If we can approach our cemented friends in grace rather than force, we have a much better chance of witnessing a tree sprout up in them to break up the hardness of their religion . . .yes??

People aren't hard-hearted nearly as much as the religion in them makes them appear to be.